In an exclusive conversation with CXO News & APAC News Network, Amit Luthra, Managing Director- India, Lenovo ISG outlines the dynamics of its data center solutions and evolution as an “Everything-as-a-Service” (XaaS) partner for all enterprises.
What are the solutions and services available currently in the Lenovo ISG portfolio in India?
At Lenovo Infrastructures Solutions Group (ISG), we believe in democratizing technology for access beyond large enterprises. Our portfolio includes smart infrastructure solutions for edge computing, cloud computing, analytics, AI, and infrastructure-as-a-service.
- Cloud: Lenovo has been helping businesses define their cloud strategy, deploy solutions, and seamlessly manage their workloads in hybrid and/or multi-cloud environments. Our ThinkAgile solutions simplify IT infrastructure and accelerate time to value. Additionally, our ThinkAgile HX Series enables businesses to harness the power of AI with flexibility, scalability, and security across workloads from edge to cloud.
- Edge Portfolio: Simplifying edge site deployment and management challenges, our ThinkEdge portfolio enables businesses to compute data where it’s generated and leverage AI capabilities at the edge.
- Artificial Intelligence: At Lenovo, we focus on enabling businesses to unleash the power of AI–from pocket–to the cloud with purpose-built AI-ready devices, infrastructure, solutions, and services. Our recently launched ThinkSystem V4 portfolio of Intel-based solutions is helping businesses harness AI to analyze data, make informed decisions, and enhance efficiency and productivity while safeguarding critical information.
- Storage and Data Management: Data is the new currency for businesses today. We, therefore, offer comprehensive data management solutions to enhance business operations with faster data insights and improved data resiliency. Our ThinkSystem enterprise storage arrays are designed to handle intensive enterprise AI workloads and large dataset workloads, offering 6X faster data intake and accelerating time to insight.
- Sustainability: We believe that smarter technology can solve problems, create opportunities, and transform the way we all live, learn, work, and heal. Lenovo is creating sustainable data centers that use energy-efficient and often, the latest in cutting-edge technologies to contribute to the green data center movement. Our Neptune technology embodies the company’s holistic view of liquid-based cooling in the data center resulting in a 40% reduction in power consumption compared to traditional air-cooled systems. Lastly, our latest ThinkSystem servers, equipped with 8 NVIDIA GPUs and Intel processors, further enhance energy efficiency achieving an ultra-efficient PUE of 1.1.
What has been the traction witnessed across different verticals for Lenovo’s data center solutions?
We have been witnessing notable traction across various verticals such as BFSI, retail, government, telecom, healthcare, etc. driven by our comprehensive data center solutions. These solutions are robust, secure, and scalable, and are equipped to handle large volumes of transactions and data analytics. Through these solutions, we are enabling businesses to improve operational efficiencies, drive innovation, and thereby achieve digital transformation.
One such example is our collaboration with Memjet. Previously, operated on disparate server, storage, and networking solutions for each business unit. This siloed and aging data center architecture was becoming increasingly difficult to manage and was nearing capacity, and as a result, Memjet found that core database workloads were suffering performance issues. After identifying the problem, Lenovo supported Memjet by implementing its Lenovo ThinkAgile VX 3000 Series appliances, which significantly increased application performance and reduced latency.
At Lenovo, we go beyond helping businesses achieve digital transformation and also address their concerns about the high energy consumption from data centers. We are dedicated to helping customers optimize their data centers for power efficiency. Our Neptune technology exemplifies our commitment by leveraging liquid-based cooling to efficiently extract heat from systems. This approach of using liquid and air cooling to extract heat from systems enhances performance levels by up to 50%, maintains operational integrity, and maximizes data center space efficiency.
How are AI, storage, and HPC acting as catalysts to fuel Lenovo’s data center business in India?
At Lenovo, we offer data center solutions to CSPs, MNCs, SMEs, and businesses of all sizes across verticals. Our TruScale Infrastructure Services provides businesses with all the power and strategic advantage of the latest data center hardware through a pay-as-you-go business model. This enables businesses to enjoy the advantages of on-premises data center hardware and services through a pay-as-you-go consumption model, which is easily scalable and does not require any incremental capital investments.
What are the plans for localized manufacturing for Lenovo servers especially when Lenovo has a strong footprint for PCs in India?
We are considering the localization of server manufacturing and are currently evaluating various strategic options, including potential local production. Our plans will be implemented once we have thoroughly assessed the market landscape and ensured all necessary conditions are met.
What are the key pillars of Lenovo ISG’s GTM strategy in India? What are the key initiatives undertaken under this GTM strategy?
Lenovo ISG provides smart infrastructure solutions tailored for businesses across diverse sectors including BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing, government, retail, and telecom, regardless of their scale.
A cornerstone of our approach is the TruScale everything-as-a-service offering, delivering end-to-end technology solutions from edge to cloud on a global scale. It provides scalable access to next-generation AI, allowing businesses to deploy powerful edge computing and gain AI-powered insights at the source of data creation. Through these solutions, we aim to deliver smarter technology to businesses across various verticals. With AI becoming the focus for most businesses today, we have been bringing forth advanced Hybrid AI solutions that empower businesses to succeed at every stage of their AI journey. By simplifying the rollout of AI, we make AI accessible to organizations of all sizes and enable transformative intelligence across all industries.
This transformation journey and operational execution to capture market opportunities have helped ISG achieve the highest-ever customer satisfaction scores. Our ‘One Lenovo’ go-to-market strategy uniquely positions us to drive customer transformation and achieve tangible business outcomes. By combining global insights with local expertise across industries, Lenovo ensures IT decision-makers receive tailored solutions that effectively address their business challenges and requirements.
How would you describe Lenovo ISG’s current partner ecosystem in India? What are the key components of this channel structure?
Lenovo ISG has developed a robust and dynamic partner ecosystem with 90% of the business being channel-led, and we have strong relationships with our customers, system integrators, and vendors. With our unique channel-first business mantra, Lenovo ISG ensures we have the right skills and competencies to deliver a customer project.
Through our Lenovo 360 program, we are working on the partner enablement aspects including training, certifications, and channel marketing playbooks. It is about more than selling to a customer for us, we want to engage with our partners to scale with our customers, their projects, needs, and budgets and not force a distribution to try and upsell in favor of one exclusive partner. Collaboration, innovation, and comprehensive support are some of the key elements when we talk about our partner ecosystem, this helps us to drive growth and success for both partners and customers.
How has Lenovo ISG become an Everything-as-a-service partner for enterprises of all sizes?
Lenovo ISG has evolved into a leading provider of “Everything-as-a-Service” (XaaS) tailored to diverse business needs of all sizes. This evolution involves delivering flexible consumption models that include hardware, software, and services, as well as switching from traditional capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx) models.
Our TruScale Hybrid Cloud combines on-premises infrastructure with public cloud for scalability and growth, enabling powerful edge computing and AI-powered insights at data creation points. Its pay-as-you-go model allows customers to leverage Lenovo’s comprehensive edge portfolio through scalable IaaS. Additionally, Lenovo ISG provides IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, empowering businesses to access and manage IT resources on demand.
We are on a journey to become the world’s largest end-to-end solutions provider, offering comprehensive AI solutions that support businesses in AI deployment and empower them with AI-ready technology. Our recently launched ThinkSystem SR685a V3 8GPU server and ThinkAgile MX455 V3 Edge Premier Solution aims to advance Hybrid AI innovation from edge to cloud by enabling businesses with AI-ready and AI-optimized infrastructure, taking AI from concept to reality and empowering them to efficiently deploy powerful, scalable and right-sized AI solutions that drive innovation, digitalization and productivity.
Furthermore, the company prioritizes collaborative partnerships, leveraging its ecosystem of technology providers to create comprehensive XaaS solutions. These solutions enable businesses to focus on innovation and growth while Lenovo manages their IT infrastructure. Lenovo ISG positions itself as a strategic partner for organizations of all sizes, driving digital transformation and delivering commercial success.
What are the parameters on which you will measure the success of Lenovo ISG’s AI for All vision?
AI has long been a cornerstone of Lenovo’s digital and intelligent transformation strategy. Our commitment to an ‘AI for All’ strategy is making AI accessible and inclusive to drive intelligent transformation. Lenovo is uniquely positioned to capture the exponential growth from AI given our pocket-to-cloud portfolio, strong partnerships, and growing portfolio of AI technologies and capabilities.
The success of our AI-powered solutions, brought forth with a network of alliances, is evidence of the rising demand for AI-ready solutions. We have also been ranked #3 AI Infra Provider by IDC and we have 80+ AI-optimized infrastructure products. Additionally, we have been working with ISVs under our AI Innovators Program, where we have already partnered with 50+ ISVs and delivered 165+ accessible AI solutions through the partnership.
What are going to be the key focus areas for Lenovo ISG in the next few quarters?
AI will continue to remain a pivotal focus of Lenovo’s digital and intelligent transformation strategy for the foreseeable future, as it continues to reshape our future. We believe that Hybrid AI is the future, where public, private, and personal foundation models will co-exist to enable AI for All while protecting privacy and data security. At Lenovo, we will continue to help businesses in their AI journeys and find the best business case for them.
Our comprehensive vision for our AI product includes a rich smart device portfolio, such as AI-enabled PCs, smartphones, and tablets, as well as AI-ready and AI-optimized infrastructure, solutions, and services. Lenovo is uniquely positioned to capture the exponential growth from AI given our pocket-cloud portfolio, strong eco-system, partnerships (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, MS, Qualcomm, etc.), and growing portfolio of AI technologies and capabilities.
Our commitment to AI includes investing an additional $1B from 2023 to 2026 in AI-driven innovation and expanding our AI Innovators Program, which currently includes 50+ ISVs and 165+ AI solutions. This ongoing investment will ensure our vision of ‘AI for All’ can be realized for every enterprise and individual, ultimately driving sustainable growth for our business.
Additionally, the rising tide of sustainability has been reshaping the technology industry, and environmental concerns from consumers and investors are pushing companies to adopt “Green IT” practices. At Lenovo, we not only help businesses achieve their sustainability goals through our Neptune technology but also will continue on our own sustainability goals. We remain on track to meet our 2030 emissions reduction goals, following our commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 in alignment with the Science Based Targets initiative’s Net-Zero Standard.
